Dont hit the panic button just yet!

Well Red Sox Nation its the last weekend of the 2009 season, and their is a lot of questions out there today on the status of shortstop Alex Gonzalez after being hit by a pitch last night. Gonzalez had x-rays done and the results according to Manager Terry Francona came back inconclusive. What I have got out of it with all the articles I have been reading this morning is that Gonzalez will be heading to the hospital around 10:30am according to boston.com to get more x-rays done that are more detailed to determine what the "line" is that the x-rays revealed last night. A lot is at stake pending the results of his x rays today. If the news is bad the Red Sox are in trouble at the shortstop position. The back ups as of right now are Jed Lowrie and Chris Woodward. With Nick Green trying to come back fighting a nerve problem in his back causing him to have what they are calling "dead" leg. It is unclear, especially after Green attempted to field some rollers this past week from infield coach Tim Bogar the results were not what the Sox wanted to see. Jed Lowrie is as well trying to come back from having wrist surgery this year and is not yet at 100%. Chris Woodward is the only healthy back up they have and well he hasn't really spent a lot of time in the bigs. He spent most of the season in the minor leagues. Lets all hope that the x-rays come back negative and their is nothing major for Gonzalez. The way I am seeing it right now its either going to be really bad or nothing at all. Two options with no happy medium. According to Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe, Gonzalez was going to have the day off for today's game anyways giving Jed Lowrie the start. Since being acquired August 14, Gonzalez has sured the shortstop position defensively, and added more offense than anticipated. He is hitting .285, with an OPS of .755. He has scored 25 runs in 43 games with Boston.

J.D. Drew is expected back in the line up sometime this weekend. Drew had cortisone shot in AC joint in his left shoulder this past Wednesday. Last night was his 2nd straight game missed.

Rocco Baldelli was taken out of the line up last night in the bottom of the 4th inning with a hip flexor strain after reaching on an error. Right now Baldelli is day to day. Francona stated that they took him out of the game for precautionary measures. This is what Francona had to say...

“We got him out, obviously, precautionary because we didn’t want to do
something,’’ Francona said. “It’s so hard for Rocco when he feels something
because he doesn’t know if it’s a pull or not. We’ve been through all that. But
he exhibited very good range of motion and no weakness. So I think that’s good.
You know, we’re certainly going to have to monitor this one, just because of the
health history. It is a concern, but we’ll watch him and try to find out more
the next couple days.’’